Family Time
by Irish Rose1
Summary: Clark and Lois reflect on their relationship while visiting his mother. 2 of 3.


It had been a nice Thanksgiving.

It may not have been at home and Clark may not have had the opportunity to carve the turkey with Grandpa's old carving knife, but he was with his family. And that included Lois.

They may not have made their relationship permanent yet, but he honestly couldn't see the rest of his life without her in it. And because he couldn't, he could only draw one conclusion from that.

But he wasn't ready to ask and he knew that even if he did, she would probably turn him down because he didn't think that she was ready either. What they had with each other at that moment was enough for him and it made him happy; _she_ made him happy. Her love and support and companionship eased his mind and his heart that he wouldn't end up alone.

And he suspected that Lois felt the same way about him.

It wasn't anything she'd ever said, but Clark had gotten the feeling on occasions in the past that Lois was afraid that no one would be able to accept her for who she was. She'd felt that she was too much like her father for anyone to see past the abrasiveness and bravado to love her.

The fact was, Clark loved her _because_ of those things. It was part of who she was and underneath her sometimes prickly facade, beat the heart of a woman who was warm, caring and passionate.

And at the moment, that warm, caring and passionate woman was snuggled against him, covered with a blanket as they sat on the couch in the front room of his mother's townhouse. He'd gotten a fire going earlier to ward off the chill of the house because Lois had gotten cold.

Mom had gone to the Capitol for a couple of hours, even though Congress wasn't in session. She explained that she would be able to clear some things off of her desk that she hadn't been able to get to before they went into the Thanksgiving recess.

"I know you won't mind having the house to yourselves for a while." And then she'd looked at the both of them. "But I'm sure that nothing will get out of hand while I'm gone."

Her gentle admonition before she left made Clark wonder if she knew Lois had snuck down to his room the night before. And he couldn't help but smile at the memory of waking up in the middle of the night in a strange bed feeling Lois's arm around him.

He could get used to that, sleeping with her. Feeling her soft, warm body cuddled up against his, seeking out his warmth to warm her. The truth of it was, he hadn't wanted to let her go but knew he needed to.

"Lois?" He held her against his chest as her head rest back on his shoulder.

"Mm-hmm?" She murmured and he smiled. It wasn't like her to sound so content, and that was _his _doing.

"I was just thinking about something." He rest his cheek on her hair and she snuggled closer in answer and that in turn brought his body to unexpected attention.

"What's that?" She asked and the humor in her voice told him that she knew exactly what had just happened.

"I like sleeping with you." He was uncharacteristically blunt, a trait he was picking up from her, and felt his face warm with the admission. "And I liked waking up last night and finding you in my bed ."

"Of course you did, Smallville." She laughed softly. "Because it's what you dream about."

"And you don't?" He grinned back.

"The only reason I got into bed with you was because I was cold." She laughed again. "It had nothing to do with wanting to sleep with you."

"Really." His grin got wider.

"You're better than an electric blanket and that's all I really wanted." Lois leaned away and caught his eye and her own face was flushed. "Well, not all."

"I like kissing you in my bed too." The grin softened into a smile when her face reddened even more.

"So do I-" She admitted to him. "But I'd like to kiss you in front of a fire. So what are you going to do about that?"

"I guess I'm going to kiss you." He deadpanned and Lois laughed.

"Gee Clark, don't sound so enthusiastic. A girl can only take so much excitement."

"Lois?"

"Yeah?"

"Stop talking, will you?"

"Make me." Her raised eyebrow challenged him to do just that, so he complied. And when she sighed into his kiss, he couldn't help but smile.

"I like when you do that too." He told her quietly and kissed her again.

"I know." She nodded and leaned back on his shoulder. "Clark?"

"Mm-hmm?" He put his cheek back on her hair and held her.

"Where are we going?" Lois asked him softly as she brought her arms up to rest on his. "I mean, where is _this_ going? With us."

"Where do you _want_ it to go?" He asked in return.

"I'm not sure." She acknowledged with a sigh. "Because it seems as though our options are becoming fewer."

"Or maybe our options are becoming more clear." Clark offered. "It seems to me that there's one way our relationship is heading."

He felt her nod and she sighed again. "Does that mean that we're ready for what generally comes next, in a serious relationship?" _Was she trembling? _Was _he_?

Because there it was, _were_ they ready to take the next step with each other? Or could they be satisfied just occasionally sharing a bed together, only holding each other?

"Honey, I think you just answered your own question." He told her. "If we're sitting here wondering if we're ready yet, I'd honestly have to say we aren't. Because if we were, I don't think it's something we'd be talking about."

"We'd be doing it."

_It. _

"Yeah."

"You sound disappointed." Lois suddenly laughed and Clark couldn't help but grin.

"Not disappointed Lois. Just-" And he tried to think of an appropriate word to summarize how he felt, but nothing could exactly cover it.

She nodded again and then leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I know Smallville."

"Lois?"

"Yes?"

"There _is_ another way this could go, you know." He ventured carefully, knowing she would understand his meaning.

"That's true." _She did._ "But if we aren't ready to make love yet, what makes you think we'd be ready to get married?" Lois offered sensibly as she brushed her fingers along his arms, raising goose bumps in their gentle wake. "I know that people used to wait until they got married-"

"Mine did."

"So did mine." He felt her shrug. "But how many people actually _wait_ anymore?"

"If you feel that the person you love is worth it, then you wait." Clark said quietly in her ear.

"Do you think I'm worth waiting for?" Lois asked him breathlessly and then shook her head in embarrassment. "I did _not_ just ask you that."

Maybe he shouldn't have smiled, but he did. She was being serious and he knew it, he just couldn't believe that they were actually talking about it. So instead of answering her, he deflected the question back to her. "Do you think _I'm_ worth waiting for?"

"I asked first." Was her answer. "So what is it?"

"As much as I've dreamed of it," His face flushed as he confessed his deepest desire to be with her. "I think that you're worth the wait, if that's what you want to do. How about you?"

"If there's anyone that's worth the wait, it's you." She pulled his arms tight around her. "And that brings me back to option number two. Which means that you're thinking about something."

"Not seriously." He shook his head. "I'd be lying if I said that it hadn't crossed my mind, but the truth is, I'm not ready to ask. And I don't want to until I know that we're both ready."

"That could be never Clark." She told him.

"Or it could be tomorrow." He countered and then kissed her cheek. "Lois, this is going someplace and we both know it."

"You know, you're pretty smart for a glorified errand boy." She leaned away again and smiled at him.

"That's because I'm learning from the best reporter at the _Daily Planet_."

"And don't you forget it."

"As if you would let me." He laughed softly and his gaze caught hers. "Now weren't you just saying something about a kiss in front of a fire?"

"I changed my mind." _Was she playing hard to get?_

Clark had to admit that he really liked that.

"And is there anything I can do to fix that?" He skimmed the warm skin of her cheek with his lips and then peppered it with soft kisses. "Anything at all?"

"Keep doing that and I might have to reconsider." She told him breathlessly as she turned her face and pressed her lips to his. "Or better yet, just do that."

His heart fluttered in his chest as a warmth spread across it and he seriously considered getting her off the couch and into his room before she knew what was happening. And as she effortlessly coaxed him into a more intimate kiss, he pulled her impossibly close against him; his body telling her exactly what her kiss was doing to him.

Then for better or for worse, she seemed to decide to move their relationship into the new phase they'd just been debating and Clark wasn't sure he wanted to stop her.

He had to admit that it was a testament to how much she wanted to stay close to him because Lois somehow managed to turn herself over while barely breaking their kiss and then she settled her body on his. And he found himself wanting her with an urgency he'd never felt before so strongly and it startled him.

The idea of being so intimately close to her always seemed to be such an abstract idea because it felt so far into the future. But now here they were, her body creating a friction on his that was driving him crazy, her lips caressing his and her hands moving into his hair.

"Lois, honey." He managed to whisper, trying to slow things down but she was having none of it.

"No talking." She insisted and went back to unwittingly, or was it deliberately, working his body into a frustration that would only be eased by seeing through what she'd started.

But before they did, it was only fair that he make her as crazy for him as he was for her.

So he got his hands under her sweater and brushed his fingers up her back. She arched into him as he hoped she would and she fisted his hair. "Not fair."

"All's fair in love and war." He took the opportunity to kiss her chin. He'd wanted to do that for the longest time, but could never get up the nerve to do it; until now. "Isn't that what the General taught you?"

"The General also taught me where to put a well placed knee, but I don't think you want that lesson. Do you?" He'd never seen her eyes sparkle quite as brightly as they were at that moment or her face so rosy with a passion he never thought he'd be lucky enough to have directed at him.

"What lessons could you teach me Lois?" He whispered as he brushed her ear with his lips and she arched into him again and he stifled a groan. Wasn't he supposed to be driving _her_ crazy?

"I like it when you do that." She laughed and found a spot just under his ear and nuzzled it. "Boy Scout."

"I sure don't feel like one at the moment." He told her as one of his hands found the small of her back and held her against him while the other continued to caress her.

"What is it that you _do_ feel Clark?" Lois asked him as she slipped her hands out of his hair and moved them down to his chest and propped herself up on her forearms.

"I'd think that would be fairly obvious." He closed his eyes for a moment because their bodies were suddenly connecting in a way that was wreaking havoc with his control. "Wouldn't you?"

"I love you." She blinked a few times as she tried to catch her breath and the sparkle in her eyes faded. "I never thought I could love someone as much as I love you." She sighed and put her head down on his chest.

"I love you too honey." He took a deep breath and let it out, realizing she'd just signaled to him that as much as she wanted him, she wasn't quite ready to go through with it. He leaned over to pick up the blanket that had fallen to the floor when she turned over and covered her with it before she caught a chill.

Her rapid heartbeat eventually slowed and her breathing became shallow as it calmed. "I'm sorry."

Clark frowned in confusion and looked down at her. "For what?"

"I balked." Lois sighed. "I've never done that before."

"It's all right Lois." He kissed her hair and ran a gentle hand along her back. "If you're not ready, I'd rather you stop it then go through with it. Because I want us _both_ to be ready."

"So do I." She sighed again and then started when the front door opened and the sounds of his mother's voice, talking to Lois' father came from the front hallway.

"Crap." She whispered.

"They don't know what we've been doing." He whispered back and smiled. "We can keep that to ourselves."

Her answer was to give him a swift punch in the shoulder and he laughed softly. "Clark."

"Lois." He answered back.

"So should I ask what the two of you have been up to?" Lois' father walked into the room, not bothering to conceal a grin.

"Dad." Lois pushed herself up and away from Clark, taking the blanket with her. He tried not to smile at her flushed cheeks and her embarrassed frown as he sat up next to her.

"I thought so." The General laughed. "You have to make good use of these cold days."

"Dad!"

"Martha was just offering to make a fresh pot of coffee." He ignored her chastising tone. "Why don't you kids join us?"

"Or better yet, why don't we join _them_?" Mom countered as she walked toward the kitchen. "That fire looks inviting on a day like this."

"In more ways than one, I'd wager." Lois' father commented pointedly as he followed her.

"It's a good thing you balked when you did." Clark took Lois' hand and squeezed it with a smile.

"Tell me about it." She sighed and glanced at him. "I never would have been able to look your mother in the face again if she'd caught us like that."

"Mom loves you, you know that. Dad did too." He kissed her cheek. "That's the whole Kent family."

"As much as I appreciate that Smallville, there's only one Kent that really matters." She grasped his hand. "Your parents are just icing on the cake."

"What's that about a wedding cake?" Lois' father walked into the room and Clark had to remind himself not to smile. And this time it was his mother who admonished him as she followed behind.

"Sam." She shook her head with a frown and then Clark _did_ smile because he saw Lois trying not to laugh. "There's no need to rush the kids down the aisle."

"Thanks Mrs. Kent." Lois smiled at her.

"You're welcome honey." She smiled back. "There _are_ times that we women have to stick together."

"You've got that right." Lois answered with a decisive nod.

"Martha, if you wouldn't mind, I thought while the coffee is brewing your son and I could take a short walk and get some fresh air."

"Dad." Lois shook her head with a frown. "It's too cold to go for a walk."

"We won't be long Lo." Her father wouldn't be deterred and Clark slowly got up off the couch. It didn't take a genius to figure out that General Lane wanted to have a talk with his possibly prospective son in law, even though there hadn't been a proposal. "We're just going to stretch our legs a bit."

Lois glanced at him and she sighed.

"Don't let the fire go out." He leaned over and smiled at her.

"Don't let the General push you around." She answered quietly. "He's used to getting his own way."

"I'll be fine." He nodded and walked to the front door, grabbed his jacket from the peg and shrugged into it. He waited for Lois' father to join him and then he opened the door. They took the stairs down to the sidewalk in silence and began to walk.

"My daughter really seems to care for you." General Lane finally said as he pulled a cigar from the inside pocket of his overcoat. He then pulled out a lighter and lit the cigar before he tucked the lighter away and he began to puff. "I've never seen her look at any man the way she looks at you. Do you love her?"

Clark nodded. "Yes sir, I do."

"Does she love you?"

"She does." And he smiled because it was still something that he couldn't quite grasp. The girl who once derisively called him 'Smallville' had turned out to be the love of his life.

"I'm glad to hear that." He took another puff and frowned. "I never told Lois this because she would have told me it was none of my business, but I wasn't happy with the way the Queen boy treated her. He was the first man she'd ever really been in love with and he discarded her without a second thought."

_Okay Clark. How are you going to handle this? _

"Sir, I can tell you that Oliver didn't mean for it to happen that way." And he knew that he was going to have to lie to protect Oliver's identity. "Queen Industries is a large company and in spite of that, he knows everything that goes on. And the only way he can know that is to be the hands on CEO that he is.

"So because of that, it doesn't leave him much time for a personal life. He really _did_ try with Lois because he cared about her but he just couldn't give her the attention she deserved."

"And what about you? Can _you_ give my daughter the attention she deserves?"

"Yes." Clark nodded. "Because no matter what else is going on, Lois always comes first."

"As she should." He sighed. "I wasn't able to give my girls the attention they deserved and it's always something I regretted. But as a soldier in the United States Army, that always had to come first because it was my job.

"It wasn't so bad when Ellen was alive because Lo and Lucy had her to take care of them. But after she died, I had two daughters that I didn't really know and was suddenly responsible for. I did the best I knew how to do, even though it wasn't good enough.

"I know that Lois always resented me for sending Lucy to boarding school and keeping her with me. And I didn't do it because I thought Lucy was any brighter than her sister. The truth was, I didn't want to send either one of them away but I finally decided to send Lucy because Lo seemed to thrive living on a military base and Lucy wasn't.

"Lois is a lot like her mother, but she's more like me and I sometimes wonder if I did her a disservice by not giving her the same opportunity that I gave Lucy. I thought that Lucy was thriving in boarding school but she had me and her sister completely fooled."

"Have you heard from her?"

He shook his head. "Has Lois?"

"She hasn't said anything one way or the other." Clark told him.

"Which means she hasn't." The General frowned. "I'm glad she has you in her life son, because Lois deserves a man who can put her first. I know you've already figured out that her abrasiveness is a defense mechanism, but she wasn't always that way and I'm sure you're seeing that too."

"It's part of who she is." He shrugged. "And it's one of the reasons that I love her so much."

"Well I can see that Lo is in good hands with you." Then he gave Clark a thoughtful look. "Have you thought about marriage?"

Clark had to be honest and he shook his head. "It's crossed my mind, but-"

"You're not ready."

"No sir."

"Does that mean that you've slept with her?" At this point Lois would have said 'Dad!', but all _he_ could do was shake his head.

"No." Well, _technically_ that wasn't true.

"Have you been tempted to?" It was a straightforward question from an overprotective father and his face warmed as he nodded. "Thank you for being honest."

_Mostly._

"General Lane, Lois _is_ in good hands and you can trust her with me. Besides, my mom will be there to straighten me out, if it came to that."

"But it won't come to that, will it?" He cracked a smile, understanding Clark's attempt at levity.

"No."

"Very good." He nodded his approval. "Now let's get back to the house. It's too damn cold to be out here."

"I won't argue with that." Clark responded automatically. Lois' father didn't need to know that the cold didn't bother him and he jammed his hands in his jacket pockets.

"Clark, we don't need to tell Lois what we talked about. It would just annoy her that I was being nosy."

"I'm sorry sir, I don't keep secrets from Lois." _Was he really contradicting a three star general? _"We promised each other that we wouldn't."

"Then I don't want you to break that promise." And he frowned. "I broke too many to her when she was small."

"I know you didn't do it on purpose."

"No. But a promise _is_ a promise and it's the basis of trust."

"Sir, I'm sure Lois trusts you." Clark was getting the strong sense of regret from General Lane and he could relate to it.

"It would serve me right if she didn't." He cleared his throat and Clark tried to reassure him.

"If she didn't trust you, I think you'd know it."

"That's true." He conceded as they stopped in front of the house and he put a hand on Clark's shoulder. "My Lo is a lucky girl to have you." And he walked up the stairs, opened the door and disappeared inside.

_Did they just get her father's stamp of approval? _And how would Lois feel about that?

"Hey Smallville, you coming in or are you going to stand there looking like you're casing the joint?" Lois' amused voice got him to look up toward the front door. "The fire is going out and Dad is insisting on helping."

"Then let him." He smiled back at her as he climbed the stairs. "Just as long as _you_ don't help him."

"Hey!" She laughed softly. "I already know that the only fires I can start are with you. Just be happy for that."

"Believe me Lois, I am." He laughed as she opened the door wide to let him in before closing it behind him. "And one of these days, we'll burn the house down."

"Sweet talker." She took his hand in hers.

"You seem to think so." He took her other hand in his and held them.

"What can I say? I have a thing for Kansas farm boys." Lois' face flushed as she stepped in close.

"What about Kansas farm boys who become glorified errand boys?" He grinned, reminding her of her earlier comment.

"Even better." She pulled her hands out of his and got them around his neck. "So are you going to fix that fire or what?"

"If you insist." He shrugged and then he kissed her.

He knew it wasn't the fire she had in mind, but figured that she wouldn't object.

And she didn't.


End file.
